The World-Wide Web (“WWW”) has become increasingly popular over the years. Web browsing on the internet is generally done with a personal computer, however, advances in technology have extended the Web browsing experience to television sets connected in some fashion to the Internet.
Standard computer Web browsers in the prior art generally do not provide the degree of user-friendliness desired by some people who lack computer experience, and many computer novices do not have the patience to learn how to use the software. Some people, for example, dislike an interface that requires them to identify hyperlink objects and use the point-and-click technique to browse through Web pages.
Most people, however, feel quite comfortable using a remote control to operate a television set. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a means by which a person can access the World-Wide Web without the use of a personal computer. In particular, it would be desirable for a person to be able to access and navigate through Web pages using an ordinary television set and a remote control.
Various different types of television Web browsers are known in the prior art, however, prior art Web browsers do not allow for quick and easy navigation between hyperlinks set within a Web page that has more than one frame. It would therefore further be desirable to have a user interface by which a person can use a remote control or keyboard to navigate between hyperlinks and frames on a Web page with minimal effort or thought, so that a person feels more as if he or she is simply changing television channels rather than utilizing a complex computer network.
Therefore, there remains a need for an improved system and method to provide a quick and easy way of navigating between hyperlinks and frames in an interactive-television Web browser setting.